OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
A Framework and Comparative Analysis of Control Plane Security of SDN and Conventional Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2017
Year: 2017

Software defined networking implements the network control plane in an external entity, rather than in each individual device as in conventional networks. This architectural difference implies a different design for control functions necessary for essential network properties, e.g., loop prevention and link redundancy. We explore how such differences redefine the security weaknesses in the SDN control plane and provide a framework for comparative analysis which focuses on essential network properties required by typical production networks. This enables analysis of how these properties are delivered by the control planes of SDN and conventional networks, and to compare security risks and mitigations. Despite the architectural difference, we find similar, but not identical, exposures in control plane security if both network paradigms provide the same network properties and are analyzed under the same threat model. However, defenses vary; SDN cannot depend on edge based filtering to protect its control plane, while this is arguably the primary defense in conventional networks. Our concrete security analysis suggests that a distributed SDN architecture that supports fault tolerance and consistency checks is important for SDN control plane security. Our analysis methodology may be of independent interest for future security analysis of SDN and conventional networks.
Cross-modal Deep Metric Learning with Multi-task Regularization
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2017
Year: 2017

DNN-based cross-modal retrieval has become a research hotspot, by which users can search results across various modalities like image and text. However, existing methods mainly focus on the pairwise correlation and reconstruction error of labeled data. They ignore the semantically similar and dissimilar constraints between different modalities, and cannot take advantage of unlabeled data. This paper proposes Cross-modal Deep Metric Learning with Multi-task Regularization (CDMLMR), which integrates quadruplet ranking loss and semi-supervised contrastive loss for modeling cross-modal semantic similarity in a unified multi-task learning architecture. The quadruplet ranking loss can model the semantically similar and dissimilar constraints to preserve cross-modal relative similarity ranking information. The semi-supervised contrastive loss is able to maximize the semantic similarity on both labeled and unlabeled data. Compared to the existing methods, CDMLMR exploits not only the similarity ranking information but also unlabeled cross-modal data, and thus boosts cross-modal retrieval accuracy.
Energy Efficient Power Control for the Two-tier Networks with Small Cells and Massive MIMO
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper, energy efficient power control for the uplink two-tier networks where a macrocell tier with a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) base station is overlaid with a small cell tier is investigated. We propose a distributed energy efficient power control algorithm which allows each user in the two-tier network taking individual decisions to optimize its own energy efficiency (EE) for the multi-user and multi-cell scenario. The distributed power control algorithm is implemented by decoupling the EE optimization problem into two steps. In the first step, we propose to assign the users on the same resource into the same group and each group can optimize its own EE, respectively. In the second step, multiple power control games based on evolutionary game theory (EGT) are formulated for each group, which allows each user optimizing its own EE. In the EGT-based power control games, each player selects a strategy giving a higher payoff than the average payoff, which can improve the fairness among the users. The proposed algorithm has a linear complexity with respect to the number of subcarriers and the number of cells in comparison with the brute force approach which has an exponential complexity. Simulation results show the remarkable improvements in terms of fairness by using the proposed algorithm.
Energy Efficient Power Allocation in Massive MIMO Systems based on Standard Interference Function
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper, energy efficient power allocation for downlink massive MIMO systems is investigated. A constrained non-convex optimization problem is formulated to maximize the energy efficiency (EE), which takes into account the quality of service (QoS) requirements. By exploiting the properties of fractional programming and the lower bound of the user data rate, the non-convex optimization problem is transformed into a convex optimization problem. The Lagrangian dual function method is utilized to convert the constrained convex problem into an unconstrained convex one. Due to the multi-variable coupling problem caused by the intra-user interference, it is intractable to derive an explicit solution to the above optimization problem. Exploiting the standard interference function, we propose an implicit iterative algorithm to solve the unconstrained convex optimization problem and obtain the optimal power allocation scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed iterative algorithm converges in just a few iterations, and demonstrate the impact of the number of users and the number of antennas on the EE.
Simplified Frequency Offset Estimation for MIMO OFDM Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

This paper addresses a simplified frequency offset estimator for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems over frequency selective fading channels. By exploiting the good correlation property of the training sequences, which are constructed from the Chu sequence, carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation is obtained through factor decomposition for the derivative of the cost function with great complexity reduction. The mean-squared error (MSE) of the CFO estimation is derived to optimize the key parameter of the simplified estimator and also to evaluate the estimator performance. Simulation results confirm the good performance of the training-assisted CFO estimator.
Scatter Radio Receivers for Extended Range Environmental Sensing WSNs
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2017
Year: 2017

Backscatter communication, relying on the reflection principle, constitutes a promising-enabling technology for lowcost, large-scale, ubiquitous sensor networking. This work makes an overview of the state-of-the-art coherent and noncoherent scatter radio receivers that account for the peculiar signal model consisting of several microwave and communication parameters.
Proposal Flow: Semantic Correspondences from Object Proposals
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Finding image correspondences remains a challenging problem in the presence of intra-class variations and large changes in scene layout. Semantic flow methods are designed to handle images depicting different instances of the same object or scene category. We introduce a novel approach to semantic flow, dubbed proposal flow, that establishes reliable correspondences using object proposals. Unlike prevailing semantic flow approaches that operate on pixels or regularly sampled local regions, proposal flow benefits from the characteristics of modern object proposals, that exhibit high repeatability at multiple scales, and can take advantage of both local and geometric consistency constraints among proposals. We also show that the corresponding sparse proposal flow can effectively be transformed into a conventional dense flow field. We introduce two new challenging datasets that can be used to evaluate both general semantic flow techniques and region-based approaches such as proposal flow. We use these benchmarks to compare different matching algorithms, object proposals, and region features within proposal flow, to the state of the art in semantic flow. This comparison, along with experiments on standard datasets, demonstrates that proposal flow significantly outperforms existing semantic flow methods in various settings.
PriMaL: A Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning Method for Event Detection in Distributed Sensor Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2017
Year: 2017

This paper introduces PriMaL, a general PRIvacy-preserving MAchine-Learning method for reducing the privacy cost of information transmitted through a network. Distributed sensor networks are often used for automated classification and detection of abnormal events in high-stakes situations, e.g. fire in buildings, earthquakes, or crowd disasters. Such networks might transmit privacy-sensitive information, e.g. GPS location of smartphones, which might be disclosed if the network is compromised. Privacy concerns might slow down the adoption of the technology, in particular in the scenario of social sensing where participation is voluntary, thus solutions are needed which improve privacy without compromising on the event detection accuracy. PriMaL is implemented as a machine-learning layer that works on top of an existing event detection algorithm. Experiments are run in a general simulation framework, for several network topologies and parameter values. The privacy footprint of state-of-the-art event detection algorithms is compared within the proposed framework. Results show that PriMaL is able to reduce the privacy cost of a distributed event detection algorithm below that of the corresponding centralized algorithm, within the bounds of some assumptions about the protocol. Moreover the performance of the distributed algorithm is not statistically worse than that of the centralized algorithm.
Layers and Matroids for the Traveling Salesman's Paths
Venue: arXiv cs.DM 2017
Year: 2017

Gottschalk and Vygen proved that every solution of the subtour elimination linear program for traveling salesman paths is a convex combination of more and more restrictive "generalized Gao-trees". We give a short proof of this fact, as a layered convex combination of bases of a sequence of increasingly restrictive matroids. A strongly polynomial, combinatorial algorithm follows for finding this convex combination, which is a new tool offering polyhedral insight, already instrumental in recent results for the $s-t$ path TSP.
Hybrid Petri Net Model Based Decision Support System
Venue: arXiv cs.SY 2017
Year: 2017

It is well known that the complex system operation requires the use of new scientific tools and computer simulation. This paper presents a modular approach for modeling and analysis of the complex systems (in communication or transport systems area) using Hybrid Petri nets. The performance evaluation of the hybrid model is made by a simulation methodology that allows building up various functioning scenario. A Decision Support System based on the above mentioned methodologies of modeling and analysis will be designed for performance evaluation and time optimization of large scale communication and/or transport systems.
DG-Embedded Radial Distribution System Planning Using Binary-Selective PSO
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2017
Year: 2017

With the increasing rate of power consumption, many new distribution systems need to be constructed to accommodate connecting the new consumers to the power grid. On the other hand, the increasing penetration of renewable distributed generation (DG) resources into the distribution systems and the necessity of optimally place them in the network can dramatically change the problem of distribution system planning and design. In this paper, the problem of optimal distribution system planning including conductor sizing, DG placement, alongside with placement and sizing of shunt capacitors is studied. A new Binary-Selective Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) approach which is capable of handling all types of continuous, binary and selective variables, simultaneously, is proposed to solve the optimization problem of distribution system planning. The objective of the problem is to minimize the system costs. Load growth rate, cost of energy, cost of power, and inflation rate are all taken into account. The efficacy of the proposed method is tested on a 26-bus distribution system.
Controllability to Equilibria of the 1-D Fokker-Planck Equation with Zero-Flux Boundary Condition
Venue: arXiv cs.SY 2017
Year: 2017

We consider the problem of controlling the spatiotemporal probability distribution of a robotic swarm that evolves according to a reflected diffusion process, using the space- and time-dependent drift vector field parameter as the control variable. In contrast to previous work on control of the Fokker-Planck equation, a zero-flux boundary condition is imposed on the partial differential equation that governs the swarm probability distribution, and only bounded vector fields are considered to be admissible as control parameters. Under these constraints, we show that any initial probability distribution can be transported to a target probability distribution under certain assumptions on the regularity of the target distribution. In particular, we show that if the target distribution is (essentially) bounded, has bounded first-order and second-order partial derivatives, and is bounded from below by a strictly positive constant, then this distribution can be reached exactly using a drift vector field that is bounded in space and time. Our proof is constructive and based on classical linear semigroup theoretic concepts.
Pop-up SLAM: Semantic Monocular Plane SLAM for Low-texture Environments
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Existing simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms are not robust in challenging low-texture environments because there are only few salient features. The resulting sparse or semi-dense map also conveys little information for motion planning. Though some work utilize plane or scene layout for dense map regularization, they require decent state estimation from other sources. In this paper, we propose real-time monocular plane SLAM to demonstrate that scene understanding could improve both state estimation and dense mapping especially in low-texture environments. The plane measurements come from a pop-up 3D plane model applied to each single image. We also combine planes with point based SLAM to improve robustness. On a public TUM dataset, our algorithm generates a dense semantic 3D model with pixel depth error of 6.2 cm while existing SLAM algorithms fail. On a 60 m long dataset with loops, our method creates a much better 3D model with state estimation error of 0.67%.
Permissive Supervisor Synthesis for Markov Decision Processes through Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2017
Year: 2017

This paper considers the permissive supervisor synthesis for probabilistic systems modeled as Markov Decision Processes (MDP). Such systems are prevalent in power grids, transportation networks, communication networks and robotics. Unlike centralized planning and optimization based planning, we propose a novel supervisor synthesis framework based on learning and compositional model checking to generate permissive local supervisors in a distributed manner. With the recent advance in assume-guarantee reasoning verification for probabilistic systems, building the composed system can be avoided to alleviate the state space explosion and our framework learn the supervisors iteratively based on the counterexamples from verification. Our approach is guaranteed to terminate in finite steps and to be correct.
Information spreading during emergencies and anomalous events
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2017
Year: 2017

The most critical time for information to spread is in the aftermath of a serious emergency, crisis, or disaster. Individuals affected by such situations can now turn to an array of communication channels, from mobile phone calls and text messages to social media posts, when alerting social ties. These channels drastically improve the speed of information in a time-sensitive event, and provide extant records of human dynamics during and afterward the event. Retrospective analysis of such anomalous events provides researchers with a class of "found experiments" that may be used to better understand social spreading. In this chapter, we study information spreading due to a number of emergency events, including the Boston Marathon Bombing and a plane crash at a western European airport. We also contrast the different information which may be gleaned by social media data compared with mobile phone data and we estimate the rate of anomalous events in a mobile phone dataset using a proposed anomaly detection method.
Topological Analysis of Nerves, Reeb Spaces, Mappers, and Multiscale Mappers
Venue: arXiv cs.CG 2017
Year: 2017

Data analysis often concerns not only the space where data come from, but also various types of maps attached to data. In recent years, several related structures have been used to study maps on data, including Reeb spaces, mappers and multiscale mappers. The construction of these structures also relies on the so-called \emph{nerve} of a cover of the domain. In this paper, we aim to analyze the topological information encoded in these structures in order to provide better understanding of these structures and facilitate their practical usage. More specifically, we show that the one-dimensional homology of the nerve complex $N(\mathcal{U})$ of a path-connected cover $\mathcal{U}$ of a domain $X$ cannot be richer than that of the domain $X$ itself. Intuitively, this result means that no new $H_1$-homology class can be "created" under a natural map from $X$ to the nerve complex $N(\mathcal{U})$. Equipping $X$ with a pseudometric $d$, we further refine this result and characterize the classes of $H_1(X)$ that may survive in the nerve complex using the notion of \emph{size} of the covering elements in $\mathcal{U}$. These fundamental results about nerve complexes then lead to an analysis of the $H_1$-homology of Reeb spaces, mappers and multiscale mappers. The analysis of $H_1$-homology groups unfortunately does not extend to higher dimensions. Nevertheless, by using a map-induced metric, establishing a Gromov-Hausdorff convergence result between mappers and the domain, and interleaving relevant modules, we can still analyze the persistent homology groups of (multiscale) mappers to establish a connection to Reeb spaces.
Simple Online and Realtime Tracking with a Deep Association Metric
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Simple Online and Realtime Tracking (SORT) is a pragmatic approach to multiple object tracking with a focus on simple, effective algorithms. In this paper, we integrate appearance information to improve the performance of SORT. Due to this extension we are able to track objects through longer periods of occlusions, effectively reducing the number of identity switches. In spirit of the original framework we place much of the computational complexity into an offline pre-training stage where we learn a deep association metric on a large-scale person re-identification dataset. During online application, we establish measurement-to-track associations using nearest neighbor queries in visual appearance space. Experimental evaluation shows that our extensions reduce the number of identity switches by 45%, achieving overall competitive performance at high frame rates.
IOD-CNN: Integrating Object Detection Networks for Event Recognition
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Many previous methods have showed the importance of considering semantically relevant objects for performing event recognition, yet none of the methods have exploited the power of deep convolutional neural networks to directly integrate relevant object information into a unified network. We present a novel unified deep CNN architecture which integrates architecturally different, yet semantically-related object detection networks to enhance the performance of the event recognition task. Our architecture allows the sharing of the convolutional layers and a fully connected layer which effectively integrates event recognition, rigid object detection and non-rigid object detection.
Comment on the Equality Condition for the I-MMSE Proof of Entropy Power Inequality
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

The paper establishes the equality condition in the I-MMSE proof of the entropy power inequality (EPI). This is done by establishing an exact expression for the deficit between the two sides of the EPI. Interestingly, a necessary condition for the equality is established by making a connection to the famous Cauchy functional equation.
Early Detection of Promoted Campaigns on Social Media
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2017
Year: 2017

Social media expose millions of users every day to information campaigns --- some emerging organically from grassroots activity, others sustained by advertising or other coordinated efforts. These campaigns contribute to the shaping of collective opinions. While most information campaigns are benign, some may be deployed for nefarious purposes. It is therefore important to be able to detect whether a meme is being artificially promoted at the very moment it becomes wildly popular. This problem has important social implications and poses numerous technical challenges. As a first step, here we focus on discriminating between trending memes that are either organic or promoted by means of advertisement. The classification is not trivial: ads cause bursts of attention that can be easily mistaken for those of organic trends. We designed a machine learning framework to classify memes that have been labeled as trending on Twitter.After trending, we can rely on a large volume of activity data. Early detection, occurring immediately at trending time, is a more challenging problem due to the minimal volume of activity data that is available prior to trending.Our supervised learning framework exploits hundreds of time-varying features to capture changing network and diffusion patterns, content and sentiment information, timing signals, and user meta-data. We explore different methods for encoding feature time series. Using millions of tweets containing trending hashtags, we achieve 75% AUC score for early detection, increasing to above 95% after trending. We evaluate the robustness of the algorithms by introducing random temporal shifts on the trend time series. Feature selection analysis reveals that content cues provide consistently useful signals; user features are more informative for early detection, while network and timing features are more helpful once more data is available.